Post #461736 by telescopes on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 10:47 PM

I found this post as I looked to see how others answered the question, "What is Tiki".

On 2007-09-26 10:05, bigbrotiki wrote:
....WHICH, again, brings up the question if Tiki is a free-for-all, whatever-one-wants-it-to-be style, (...and I know that it is not what you mean, but some people might read it that way)

Because it is definitely not. It is an agreement on a certain stylistic language....and with that, it INCLUDES certain elements, and EXCLUDES others (like white ceilings, perhaps :D ). As mentioned here before a couple of times, a game, to be fun, has to have rules, if these rules go out the window it is not a game worth playing.

Well, that's how I see it...wonder why! :D

I think Tiki is more than the color of the walls or the quality and authenticity of your mug collection. It is an attitude that celebrates the present moment, the here and now without a concern for tomorrow. What makes this attitude unique and somewhat dependent on the trappings that Bigbro would address as fundamental to tiki is a recognition of the savage.

The savage is the most unique aspect of tiki. It is a call to live for the moment without fear or penitence. It is a recognition that life is fragile and at any given moment you might be killed or dismembered by a power far greater than yourself.

And so we drink and dine, surrounded by fire light from torches, listening to deconstructed primitive music while being served by half dressed women, all in the presence of the Tikis who like the slave standing next to the heroic Roman General remind us that soon all of this might be taken away.

Are you a tiki snob? For me, the tiki snob is one who values the tiki for what is seen by the eyes, but fails to embrace the spirit it all represents.

Hell, who knows, maybe I am a snob.

But how many of you have laid a real Maori woman? Let alone two. In a real polynesian village in New Zealand I might add.

Yes. It was fun, scary, and I certainly was living for the moment.